Persepolis

So far I am liking the book.  I think that it is very interesting to read about Iran.  I think that most Americans don't really know that much about Iran.  The videos in class kind of proved that.  At first I thought it was hard to keep track of all of the characters and the pictures really slowed down my reading.  Now that I have gotten used to it I enjoy reading.  I had never read a graphic novel and had prior to this class had some doubts about them.  I didn't really know what they were like.  I am glad that we read this book in class so I could read one.  I think that if I didn't read Persepolis for class I probably would have never read a graphic novel.  I found it interesting how she had such a hard time leaving her family.  I think that all of her problems in Europe were mainly caused just because she was worried about her family.  I think it would be very hard to be in a foreign place without knowing any one and having to worry that your family could be killed because of the war.  I also think that she felt a lot of guilt being safe from the war and not following her beliefs from back home.  It is a good thing that she is back in Iran now with her family.  I hope she will be able to find somebody that she truly loves because she has had a lot of problems doing that so far. 

Thoughts on I am the Messenger

For my choice novel I decided to read I am the Messenger.  I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone.  The book is exciting right from the beginning.  It starts off with a bank robbery.  The main character Ed saves the day and stops the robber.  Ed then receives playing cards with clues on them.  He has to figure out each clue and deliver a message.  I think that this book is similar to our classes theme of Coming of Age.  Throughout the book Ed and his friends grow up a lot.  At the start they haven't accomplished anything with their life and it doesn't really look like they will in the near future.  They are nineteen years old and very childish in a way.  They don't have very many responsibilities and the only thing that they really do is play cards.  As the book goes along this all starts to change.  By delivering the messages Ed starts to realize that he can make something of his life.  He also realizes that he really enjoys helping people.  I think that his friends see him changing and that helps them start to change their lives.  By the end of the book they are closer to becoming real adults.       

First half of I am the Messenger

I am the Messenger is about a lazy 19 year old guy named Ed.  He hasn't accomplished anything in his life.  He works as a cab driver and in his free time plays cards with his three best friends.  The book starts out with Ed and his friends being held hostage at a bank that is being robbed.  Ed saves the day and for a short while is a hero in the town.  A couple of weeks later Ed starts getting playing cards in the mail.  Ed has to solve each card and help people along the way. 

I really enjoyed the book up to this point.  It is a quick read that is exciting the entire time.  I don't think that there are any dead or boring spots in this story.  I enjoyed the mystery of the cards and Ed's challenge to solve each one.

Wrongs of Passage

I don't agree with Sydney that turning 16, 18, and 21 are rights of passages in America.   The stages of a right of passage that she stated in the begging of her essay don't really go along with the turning of those ages.  I don't  think that you really re-enter society differently after you turn 16.  Really the only difference is that you are now able to drive.

I think that going to college is a right of passage.  I am anticipating going through this in a couple of years.  The first stage is separation.  Most of the time when you go to college you move away from your parents and house for the first time. The second stage is transition.  A college student transitions from being a student to having a degree.  I think that college students transition from childhood to adulthood.  The third stage is incorporation.  After you are done with college you re-enter society with a degree and as an adult. 

Sweet Jane: Some Final Reflections on Jane Eyre

If I was Jane I think that I would stay with Mr. Rochester.  At the same time I can kind of see why she would want to leave.  It would be hard to know that Mr. Rochester is married but I think Jane would be better off with him.  She has always wanted to be loved and feel like she belonged somewhere.  She was about to be able to feel that.  Mr. Rochester really loved her even though he had a wife.  Jane and him were going to leave England so people wouldn't know the truth about them.  I think that they could have been happy together in another country.

I thought that the book was ok.  It definitely got better as it went along.  Some parts were very long and hard to read.  After a while it did get interesting and I was able to read easier.  I thought that sometimes the book went into too long of descriptions.

I think that this book should be taught in College Lit.  Even though it was hard to get into at the beginning it did have a lot of motifs and a bigger meaning behind it. 

Final Reflections on Jane Eyre

Similar to The Catcher in the Rye I thought this book was just ok.  I didn't find it a great book but near the end of the story it got easier to read.  The pages had small print and some paragraphs were very long with descriptions.  One part that liked was that I didn't see the end coming.  I was surprised that the creature in the third story was Mr. Rochester's wife.  I felt bad for Jane because she was finally about to be a person in a high social class.   I noticed that everyone had strong feelings about social classes.  When Mr. Rochester had his friends over they were not comfortable with Jane being in the room and joining them.  Mrs. Fairfax also had problems with Jane and Mr. Rochester getting married.  When Jane was falling in love with Mr. Rochester she continued to tell her self that she was not good enough for him and tried to tell herself what class she was in. I didn't like the way that it ended.  If we continued to read the rest of the book it probably ends better, but the part that we read was kind of depressing.  It was definitely not a happy ending.  Overall I thought that the book got better as it went and was just ok.

The First Half of Jane Eyre

After reading the beginning of Jane Eyre I think that the book is ok.  Right at first I thought the book was very slow but as I kept reading it got better.  I felt bad for Jane when she was at her aunt's house.  She was treated extremely unfairly just because she was poor.  I don't understand why her aunt would treat her that way because she is still family.  I would never treat my cousins the way that Jane was treated.  I also thought that it was terrible how the owner of the school Jane went to treated all of the girls.  You would think that if someone owned a school for orphans they would care for them.  It seemed like he didn't care if they were all dying of typhus.  I also wondered if in order to teach at that school if you needed a degree or something.  Jane became a teacher after so many years.  Did she graduate from the school first?  I also found it strange that when Jane was a teacher she still needed to get permission to leave the school.  Jane mentioned it a couple of times.  I wasn't sure how much freedom or power teachers had back then.  Jane was only 18 years old and she was already a teacher.  Overall as I keep reading I am enjoying the book more and more.  It just took a little while to get into it.

Final Thoughts on The Catcher in the Rye

Overall I thought thought that the book was alright. It definitely wasn't the best book that I ever read but at the same time I didn't hate it.  Some parts were interesting and I did enjoy Holden's sarcasm. He had a lot of it.  I think that when you read very closely and carefully that there was a lot of meaning tot this book.  I have mixed feelings about that. I liked that at some parts but at the same time I would like to just read a book and not have to think into it so much. 

I felt like this book was really just a story a few very depressing days of a boys life.  I didn't really understand the point of the book.  It seemed like nothing ever really happened. I kept on waiting for anything to happen and it never came.  As I got farther along I kept on thinking that surely something big would happen to Holden or a larger character but nothing ever did.  I really liked how J.D Salinger created Holden and Phoebe's relationship.  I liked how it described Phoebe coming down the street with Holden's red hat and her suitcase ready to go with Holden. I think that Holden was really happier when he was with his family and
younger kids. Overall there were some parts of the story that I really enjoyed and some parts that I didn't think were that great.

First Half of The Catcher in the Rye

After being about halfway through the book now I am enjoying it.  I think that Holden has a terrible view of life and is very negative.  I found is strange how he is failing out of something like his fourth school and in one part he was talking about how his parents want him to go to a school like Yale.  I don't know how he could get into a school like that if his grades are so bad.  I think that some of his negativity could have started when his brother died.  That would be very hard for and child to go through and it sounded like he really looked up and loved his brother even though he was younger then him.  One thing that I noticed is Holden is always saying how depressed he is.  He also mentions windows a lot.  He will say something like I looked out the window and felt depressed.  I wonder if that could do something with his brother dying.  After his brother died he broke all of the windows in his garage.  Maybe there is a connection there.  Overall I think that this is a pretty good book up to this point.

Bloggin' on Holden

The scene that I decided to blog about is when Holden goes over to Old Spencer's house.  They talk about Holden's situation.  He is being kicked out of the school because he failed four of his five classes.  Old Spencer was Holden's history teacher and failed him.  I decided to write about this scene because I think that it gives the reader a good background of Holden's life and his view of school.  I think that Salinger is getting at some of the stereotypes people have of teenagers.  The big one that I think Salinger is showing in this scene is that teens don't care about things and that they only live in the moment and don't think about their future.  Holden doesn't care about school and really doesn't seem that worried about failing out of another school.  Holden also has no idea what he is going to do when he gets older and I think that is part of his reason for not caring.

Visions of Childhood

In the first story that we read, The Sutton Pie Safe,  it showed how children still have a lot to learn about life.  In the story the boy learned that you have to speak up if you really want something.  The dad was going to make the boy a belt from a snake that he had killed but when the boy didn't speak up to say that he wanted it the dad cut the snake in pieces.  In Every Little Hurricane it showed how children don't always understand every going on.  The boy in this story saw the party going on but I don't think that he really knew why everyone was acting the way they were.  Like all kids he had some ideas but there was still some questions that he had.  The third story that we read was Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.  This story showed how when children start getting older and come closer to becoming an adult they start to become independent.  This is a good thing but as in this case teens have to be careful on what they do and where they go.  I think this story showed an extreme case of what could go wrong.  The fourth story we read, Bottle Caps, shows how kids like to have fun.  They find little things that make them happy from a collection to having an insect graveyard.  I think that the final story we read showed how children have a great personality and aren't afraid of what people think always.  Esme or her brother weren't afraid to go up to a complete stranger and start talking with him.  By doing this they changed the man's life in a positive way.

I think that the Harry Potter movies show the changes in childhood.  Throughout all of the movies it shows how childhood changes and different steps of childhood.  It shows how as kids get older they gain a lot of responsibilities.  It also shows how children and mostly teens have a lot of drama, especially with friends.  Friends are a big part of a teens life.

Childhood Memory

When I was a child one of my favorite things to do was play out side with friends and my neighbors.  During the summer especially we spent many nights playing hide and go seek.  Everyone would hide on our street and one person would walk around with a flashlight.  This would never get old.  We would play until our parents would call us inside.  Sometimes we would ding dong ditch someones house on our street.  We thought we were really cool for doing this and that we were being sneaky doing something bad.  I felt like I was an old kid doing these things and seeing smaller children move to the street.  I had a lot of fun nights in my neighborhood.

Intro

Hi everyone,

My name is Adam.  One interest I have is sports.  I like just about every sport and I play soccer and tennis.  My favorite sport teams are the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cubs.  After high school I plan on going to a 4 year college.  I am not sure where I want to go yet or exactly what I want to be.  I am thinking about possibly engineering. I don't really have one favorite book or movie.  There are a lot of different ones that I like.